Hanna's Town

Guided tours are offered at this site, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Hanna's Town, founded in 1773 and named for its founder Robert Hanna, acted as the first Seat of Westmoreland County and hosted the first English courts west of the Allegheny Mountains. The town was an oasis for travelers, settlers, and those seeking justice and order in the often chaotic environment of the western Pennsylvania colonial frontier.

The town and its inhabitants played a major role in the armed conflict between Pennsylvania and Virginia for control of the area now recognized as southwestern Pennsylvania.

Hanna's Town was active in various issues associated with the Revolutionary War. The Hanna's Town Resolves were adopted here on May 16, 1775. This document is one of the most direct challenges to British authority preceding the Declaration of Independence. Before most other colonial communities took a stand, Westmoreland County residents proclaimed their willingness to take up arms to defend their rights against British oppression. Hanna's Town was an important center for the recruitment of militia for the western campaigns against the British in Detroit and their Indian allies. In one of the final battles of the war, Hanna's Town was attacked and burned on July 13, 1782, by a raiding party of Indians and their British allies. The town never recovered, and the county seat was moved to Greensburg in 1786.

The town site's subsequent conversion to farmland in the early 1800s preserved it as an archaeological time capsule of 1770 frontier life during the waning British colonial period and the emerging American republic, and it remains an almost unique archaeological resource in this area.

The village consists of the reconstructed Hanna's Tavern/Courthouse, three re-located vintage log houses, a reconstructed Revolutionary War era fort, and a wagon shed that houses an authentic late 18th century Conestoga wagon.

Historic Hanna's Town is a Westmoreland County Park managed by the Westmoreland County Historical Society.

Marketing for Historic Hanna's Town is supported in part by a

Westmoreland County Tourism Grant.

Our Mission

The Westmoreland County Historical Society is an educational organization dedicated to acquiring and managing resources related to the history of Westmoreland County and using these resources to encourage a diverse audience to make connections to the past, develop an understanding of the present, and provide direction for the future.